A look at the world through my eyes. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes somewhere in between.

Monday, June 27, 2011

While the Cat is Away...

The mice will play. At least that's how the saying goes. My boss this week is in Ethiopia teaching a class. Our associate director had to go out of town unexpectedly for the week. So that leaves me in charge. This usually happens a couple of times a year. The first is always the big meteorology conference and half of our building empties out. So being in charge is never a problem that week. There is another conference during the year they go to but it is only for a couple of days, not a week. But if I'm left in charge at other times, it never fails that something MAJOR goes wrong.

One year I had to deal with an employee who hadn't paid state taxes in three years and was about to be terminated if the situation wasn't rectified immediately. One year I had to deal with a hostile work situation. This year I already know what the problem is going to be this week and warned my boss before he left. I'm prepared to handle it because I have past experience to go by.

But still I wonder what else will go wrong. I will pull on the supervisor hat (which I totally dislike) and make decisions. I once had a boss who said to not to worry about things because we aren't dealing with life and death. Take a deep breath. He had been a Colonel on an Air Force carrier so he knew a little about life/death situations. I try and remember his advice when it seems like the world is collapsing. Because it isn't. Everything can be fixed somehow. It may not be the ideal answer, but it can be fixed.